The Prince of Wales is known for his devotion to environmental causes, so it was naturally an issue that his vintage Aston Martin was such a gas-guzzler.Queen Elizabethgave him the car for his 21st birthday, and he was determined to continue to drive it, guilt-free.

Engineers at Aston Martin had discovered that their cars could run on surplus English white wine (albeit mixed with a whey). Still, they urged the Prince not to switch out his fuel. "The engineers at Aston said, 'Oh, it’ll ruin the whole thing,'"he said, according toThe Telegraph.

IMAGE GETTY IMAGES / ANWAR HUSSEIN

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Prince Charles drives Princess Diana in his Aston Martin in 1985.

Charles wasn't about to take no for an answer. "I said, 'Well I won’t drive it then,' so they got on with it and now they admit that it runs better and is more powerful on that fuel than it is on petrol... And also, it smells delicious as you’re driving along."

A vintage sports car that runs on wine—Prince Charlesmay have created the ultimate status symbol.

IMAGE GETTY IMAGES / TIM GRAHAM

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Prince Charles says goodbye to the Queen Mother after a lunch for her 86th birthday.

He also insisted on retrofitting the Queen's Royal Train with a less sexy alternative fuel. "It took me a long time to battle to get them to run it on used cooking oil," Charles said. "Which actually, in the end, worked quite well." But the maintenance workers might quibble with that, he admitted. "They say it clogs up the engine or something."